COPS SOUND ALARM ABOUT POSSIBLE BAD HEROIN

Following Two Deaths, Police Await Toxicology Test
Results

The Vancouver Police Department issued a warning to drug users Monday
after two women died of possible heroin overdoses and a man almost
died after he injected what is believed to be "potentially fatal heroin."

All three cases occurred in the last five days, with the deaths
centred around Nanaimo and Kingsway. A 19-year-old woman died behind a
gas station in the 2200-block of Kingsway and a 26-year-old woman died
in The 2400 Motel at 2400 Kingsway.

Police learned of the incident involving the man after an officer
heard through a source that he was taken to hospital after overdosing
from heroin. Location of the man's overdose wasn't known at press
time. The three people didn't know each other, said Const. Lindsey
Houghton, a VPD media relations officer, who noted seized drugs are
being analyzed and toxicology tests are being conducted to determine
the makeup of the heroin.

"We believe it's been cut or diluted with some unknown substance,
based on speaking with the gentleman [who almost died] and what we
found at the two death scenes," Houghton said. "It's something that we
feel is more than a coincidence, it's something that we need to get
out to the public. We need to let drug users know that we're aware of
this and we're sharing the information."

Police have shared the news with local health agencies, the Insite
drug injection site in the Downtown Eastside, the Vancouver Area
Network of Drug Users and neighbouring police departments.

People die of drug overdoses every year in Vancouver, but Houghton
said the warning was issued because police fear the type of heroin
that caused the deaths could lead to more. "It does us no good to hold
on to this information and wait until we have 15 or 20 [overdose
deaths], when we could be telling people now and potentially saving
some lives," he said.

In August 2005, police issued a similar warning when three people died
of drug overdoses within 48 hours. The death toll mounted to 10 people
by Sept. 1 of that year.

A few weeks before the warning was issued, narcotics were stolen from
a pharmacy in the Downtown Eastside. At the time, police were trying
to determine whether there was any connection to the burglary and the
overdose deaths.

The B.C. Coroners Service investigated the deaths but was unable to
provide information on their findings before the Courier's deadline.
As police did in 2005, Houghton urged drug users to use Insite, where
the facility on East Hastings is staffed with nurses. Staff at Insite
are testing a nasal spray version of the drug naxolone, commonly known
as Narcan, at the site. The drug has proven to revive users from an
overdose.

Mark Townsend of the PHS Community Services Society, which operates
Insite in conjunction with Vancouver Coastal Health, said the spray
has been used effectively 10 times on drug users. The PHS is
considering having the spray made available at needle exchanges and
the single-room occupancy hotels that it operates in the Downtown Eastside.